My Nigel Dean, Before and After

I'd been meaning to do this for a while. This bike was built up by a guy 50 miles from me, posted on FGG, and then he stripped it down and sold it to raise money to build his HR Bates, I think. Anyhow, I bought it, and built it my way. Compare and contrast!

Ha! You'll laugh. They're actually steel rims, Normandie flip flop hubs. They were on a vintage gearie I parted out. When I get up the guts, I'll get some sensible rims and rebuild them, but I've not done any wheelbuilding yet. It scares me.

You can see why I was keen to start assembling what I need to build some wheels. Actually, I'm not unhappy with the hubs, I'd only replace those if I had some Campy, or Phils or something, but the rims weigh a ton, and since I rather like having brakes, it would be helpful to have rims which they would actually grip!

Did you get to keep the PMP's? I can see some unabomber types laying down heavy coin for those things.

No, I only got the frame. I've had it 2 years, but from recollection, I only paid $30 for it, and there's no way I'd get the cranks for that. The guy was wanting to pass them down to his children!

Momentum, I have various other wheels I could use up front, that might be the answer. At the moment, though, springing for a wheelstand is out of the question. Just been out to take a better pic (finally got a decent digicam)

I'm fairly certain that won't work for a rear though, eh? I suppose I could just upend an old frame to use as a double truing stand! Interested to hear how you get on, and what's easy and hard about it. I need to take that leap this year.

My first wheel took maybe 2 hours to build using the tutorial on Sheldon Brown's site. It was fun, and I got a nice handbuilt wheelset, and something to be proud of out of the deal. Do it. No need to worry about down time, it shouldn't take multiple days to build your first wheel as long as you're careful, and you can't ride while you're building a wheel anyway.

Some people think it's a good idea to use cheap rims for their first build for fear of messing up nice ones. My experience is just the oposite. I used Open Pros, and they went togehter very sttraight with very little truing needed once I brought them up to tension. You'll spend a lot more time dinking around getting cheaper rims straight.

borrowed a Minoura Truing stand for my build. Chances are you know someone who has one.

Sadly not. None of my friends are serious cyclists. I have one buddy whose a huge cycling fan, watches the whole tour every year etc. I built him up a nice road bike last summer from parts I had, and we're planning to do some riding this year, but he literally can't patch a tube - his dad used to do all the work when he was younger, and then he dropped out of riding. Aside from him, I don't have any cycling mates.

I didn't notice the cranks from the original picture until someone asked about 'em. My response upon noticing them for the first time was something along the lines of "What the **** me?!" (said out loud)